


Matilda

by Doug48



Series: Zoo 1.2 [2]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-10-31 06:46:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17844425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doug48/pseuds/Doug48
Summary: This is a vixen that Nick knew previously, and I hope it sheds some light on the way I'm writing his interactions with Judy. This story takes place before the events of Zoo1.2.





	Matilda

I never thought I’d be happy. I know mammals like me don’t deserve happiness; we deserve what we get instead. But, here I am at a jewelry store, picking out an engagement collar.

Matilda has not asked me for a collar, yet, but she has, several times, asked me how serious I was, and how much I loved her. I’ve known other vixens, and that sort of talk means they want some sort of commitment. I know because I never made those commitments when asked that question before, and so I always found myself alone.

Not this time. Not with Matt.

“May I help you sir?” The squirrel clerk asks. He acts like they all do when they see me, like I’m here to rob them or maybe I’m ‘casing the joint’ so I can come back later and rob them, so now I try to put him at ease.

“I’m looking for an engagement collar. What can I get for 1000 bucks?” I ask, and show him my Zootopia Bank and Trust card. That card was not easy for a fox like me to get, but I know people and so I have it. Thousand bucks is the upper limit on a card owned by a fox.

“Of course, sir,” the clerk says. He’s all smiles now and allows me to see a selection of various semi-precious stones. No diamonds for the predator, of course! I could easily palm one or two of the stones for practice and then give them back, but I don’t want to risk causing trouble today. 

Half an hour later, jewelry in paw, well, in a box anyway, and the box in my paw, I’m off to see Matt. We traded texts earlier today, so I know where she is. She thinks I’m still at work because I want to surprise her with the collar. Females like that sort of thing because it proves we're thinking about them.

Tracking her in the mall is not hard. I’ve been doing this sort of thing professionally for Grandfather since I was, what? 20? Something like that. “See this guy? Find him and do the hand off,” Grandfather would say, and give me a picture and, usually, an article of clothing. Corny, I know, but canines really do better tracking smell and it’s not insulting if a fellow canine asks you to ‘follow your nose’. Lately I’ve been getting more handoffs when others find the target, and then I'm the one that does what needs to be done.

I can see her now, on the lower level, talking to her girlfriends. They travel in packs, the vixens do, and the better the collar from your todd, the more your status in the group. I know her friends don’t know anyone with my connections, so I know they'll be suitably impressed.

I approach from out of her sight line, and downwind, more or less automatically. She rarely worries about her surroundings, but she has chided me before about the workmanlike way that I smell, so I know she would recognize me if I wasn’t wearing scent block. I keep my body language casual and keep my tail down and fangs hidden just in case. There are many prey around, here in this upscale mall, and they frighten easily.

I can hear the vixens talking as I take a seat on the other side of some sort of plastic plant. I can easily smell Matt's perfume, so I hope she can’t smell me, or if she does get something, the scent is unfamiliar or lost in the background.

“Oh, my God, did you see that wolf?” One says, in that exaggerated way she and her friends talk when they’re together.

“Which one? The old one that looks senile or the one that looks like he wants to lick himself?” Matt replies. I can picture her pretty muzzle pointing this way and that, and I sink down a bit in my chair, afraid she’ll notice me too early.

“Speaking of. Mick still sniffing around?” One of the vixens asks.

“Yeah. Todd can’t take a hint,” another one replies.

“Oh, he can take a hint. He just doesn’t want to. Give him a sniff, a chance at tail, and his brain shuts down,” Matt replies. “Like all males.” They laugh.

“Ha. How long you going to put up with that low status annoyance?”

Now I start to worry. She’s got another fox flirting with her? Who is this Mick guy, anyway? Maybe I know him, and I can tell him to-

“Not much longer. I’m pretty sure he’ll do something dramatic soon. You should’ve seen when I told him I needed a commitment. He looked determined, so I expect some sort of cheap token, maybe a faux diamond, in a day or two.” 

“Maybe you can pawn it for a new hat?” One of her friends says, and they all laugh.

“Doubt it. Mick, excuse me, Nick, isn’t a mammal of means, by any means. Low-level clerk working for some senile old wolf on the outskirts of town," she says. “He keeps promising to show me where he works, and I always refuse. I doubt they even have public utilities there!”

My mind goes a little blank as I hear them laugh. I had been holding the box, but now it’s on the floor, so I get down on all fours to retrieve it as a familiar scent passes close by, and I see one of her dainty feet.

“Watch it, pervert,” she says, to the back of my head. She and her friends laugh as they walk away.

The next couple of hours pass in a kind of blur, and I find myself back on a bus headed home.

“Hey, dog, you okay?”

It’s Finn, and he’s sitting beside me on the bus. For once, I didn’t notice him.

“I take it she said no?” He asks, gesturing at the box I’m still carrying.

“Not yet,” I reply, and he grunts. I can scent his curiosity.

I get up when he does, and then get off at our stop. Finn waits with me as I stand, uncertain, by the side of the road. After a few seconds, I start walking home, passing the sign, and headed toward the living areas.

“Talk about it?”

“I heard her talking to her friends. She said,” and here I’m not sure how to continue, “she told them. That is, she isn’t very impressed with me.”

I handed him the box. “She said some things and told them she expects some sort of faux diamond that would be worth the price of a new hat.”

He opens the box and looks at the stones. “Worth more than a hat. Probably worth a couple hats.”

His scent is clear. Concern. I’m sure he’s been registering my despair this last half hour or so.

“What should I do with that now?” I ask, and gesture at the box.

He bounces the now re-closed box again. “Want me to take it back? Doubt you want to see those jewel thieves again. Might have to grab some jewelry just to put them a little more at ease. Or you could give it to the boss’ secretary so she can decide what to do with it?”

“I’m not sure I care, to be honest,” I reply as my phone activates. It’s Matilda, and she wants to do muzzle time.

“Want me to answer?” Finn asks. “Tell her I have your phone because we’re working or some crap like that?”

“No. She never liked you, or any of my other friends, much. I’ll talk to her.”

So I take the call. “Hey Matt,” I tell her image. She looks happy, exactly the way she did with her friends at the mall. “How’s it going?”

I know I look depressed, but, as usual, she doesn’t seem to notice. Or care.

“It’s great! I spent the day with my girlfriends at the mall. I thought I smelled you once or twice? Anyway, I nearly got attacked by a beggar near the food court, but I gave him a piece of my mind and he beat a hasty retreat!”

“Oh. Good for you.”

“We still on for tonight? You said you might have something for me?” Now she looks much happier, eyes bright with anticipation, and I realize it’s an act. It’s always been an act. 

“Yes. I was thinking I might get you a new hat. I know you like them.”

Finn, outside the camera pickup, looks at me strangely.

“No, no, not that. I told my girlfriends at the mall what you said yesterday, and they said you probably wanted to propose!”

Now she really does look happy, and I nearly break down and tell her what I think. How that beggar she met was me. But I don’t. Never let them see they get to you. 

“Hey, listen. I have to go. Grandfather needs me to run an errand for him. Talk later, okay?”

“Okay. Love you! Bye!” And she hangs up.

“Talk later?” Finn asks. Now he’s facing me squarely with his hands on his hips and his head cocked slightly to one side.

“Yes. After hell freezes over,” I reply, not looking at him.

“So you're ghosting her? Not the way I would have handled it,” Finn says and makes a slicing motion with one paw against his throat. 

“She's not worth getting permission,” I reply. Finn nods and we keep walking.

**Author's Note:**

> If you read my other works in Zoo1.2, you'll see various themes and events from this story again. Also, in my version, Zootopia is more like a northern United States city such that public transportation is much more common than a southern US city.


End file.
